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Story highlights A privacy group argues a secret federal court's OK of NSA snooping was improper Supreme Court Nude aldershot girls the attempt to cut off NSA access to phone records The Justice Department urged the high court to stay out of the current fight The privacy group has the option of going back to lower courts.

The U. Supreme Court will allow the Looking for 50 nsa Security Agency's surveillance of domestic telephone communication records to continue for now.

The justices without comment Monday rejected an appeal from a privacy rights group, Looking for 50 nsa claimed a secret federal court improperly authorized the government to collect the electronic records. The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed its petition directly with the high court, bypassing the usual step of going to the lower federal courts first.

Such a move made it much harder for the Looking for 50 nsa to intervene at this stage, but EPIC officials argued "exceptional ramifications" demanded immediate final judicial review.

There was no fof reaction to the court's order from the public interest group, or from the Justice Department. The NSA has publicly Looking for 50 nsa it received secret court approval to collect vast amounts of so-called metadata from telecom giant Verizon and leading Internet companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo and Facebook.

The information includes the numbers, time, and length of nearly every phone call to and from the United States in the past five years, but not the location or actual monitoring of the conversations Looking for 50 nsa. To do so would require a separate, specifically targeted search warrant.

Nobody is listening to your calls. More Videos Nobody Looking for 50 nsa listening to your calls The revelations on bulk data collection triggered new debate about national security and privacy interests, and about the secretive legal process that sets in motion the government surveillance.

The once-secret approval came in April from a judge at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which handles individual requests for electronic surveillance for "foreign intelligence purposes. Verizon Business Network Services turned over the metadata to the government.

The Surveillance Court has applied the Foreign Lookinv Surveillance Act "in a way that is contrary to both the text and purpose of the statute," he said.

This is the first direct challenge to the court order, Looking for 50 nsa EPIC said the Obama administration should have to publicly explain its legal justification for the spying program.

The group also argued restrictions in federal Lolking mean no other state or federal court can review the Surveillance Court's orders except the Supreme Court itself. The group is suing on behalf of itself as a Verizon customer, but also said the justices themselves have a stake in fro legal fight.

The revelations of the NSA program and the inner Looking for 50 nsa of the Surveillance Court came after a former agency contractor, Edward Snowden, leaked documents to the Guardian newspaper in Britain.

Snowden LLooking to Hong Kong and then Russia to escape U. The Justice Department urged the high court to stay Looking for 50 nsa of the current fight, called a "mandamus" review. EPIC's petition "does not meet the stringent requirements for mandamus relief, and this court lacks jurisdiction" to act, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said in the government's brief, filed last month.

The suits are still pending. Telecoms themselves were the initial targets of legal action, after the NSA domestic Looking for 50 nsa program was unveiled in Big tits blonde Arizona Congress later gave retroactive immunity to those private firms. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court secretly decides whether to grant certain types of government requests, including wiretapping, data analysis, and other monitoring of possible terrorists and spies operating in the United States.

Legal sources say the tiny courtroom and adjacent areas are sealed tightly -- ironically given the political debate -- to prevent any eavesdropping by outsiders.

John Dor has named all current members, as a well as a three-judge panel to hear appeals of the Surveillance Court's orders, known as the Court of Review. Because it is an "ex-parte" body -- it hears only the government's side -- the court has been criticized as a kangaroo court that too easily accedes to any Looking for 50 nsa request.

In order to collect information, the government has to demonstrate that it's "relevant" to an international terrorism investigation.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Act lays out exactly what the special court must decide:. Several federal judges Lookibg once served on the Looking for 50 nsa Court refused to discuss their service when contacted by CNN.